Michail Vladimirovitch

Our famstead has three Don harvesters and one Dominator harvester. One of the Don harvesters is too old and is prepared for amortization now, but Dominator has already been used for 7 seasons. We bought Dominator as we wished to stake on reliability in addition to a tribute to fashion: it was assumed that if a farm was prosperous it possessed some imported equipment. So, at that time it was not economical, but a political question…

Last season Dominator failed us: the protector sleeve broke down and we couldn’t find it anywhere. We found it in Dnepropetrovsk and had to go there urgently. While they were transporting and installing the part, the harvester was standing idle for almost 2 days. In a similar situation Don wouldn’t have been staying even half a day.

Everybody is satisfied with the Don harvesters. Our new harvester has a fuel-efficient reliable motor. The year before last, our new Don harvester cut 200 tons for four days, and last year, in addition to harvesting of our fields, it was driven over a distance of 100 kilometers to one of the neighboring farms.

We don’t want to buy Dominators now: their price is not good enough, there are more difficulties with spare parts and repairing. The prices for their spare parts are also terrible. For example, this year we spent 5000 hryvnas servicing the Don harvester, as for the Dominator harvester, we have already expended 57000 hryvnas for it. The prices are too high, particularly, a sprocket for the grain elevator costs 600-700 hryvnas.

Before buying a new Don harvester, we had had 2 fifteen years old harvesters Don and one Dominator. Well, the year before last we expended 40 000 hryvnas servicing and repairing 2 fifteen years old harvesters Don and 10000 hryvnas for the Dominator. So, there is no question: we choose the Don harvesters! We will probably refuse to use the Dominator harvester, get rid of it and buy another Don harvester.

Economical performance of the equipment

Designation	Units of measurement	Mega-208 Dominator	Don-1500�
Year of manufacture	-	1999	2005
Purchase price	hryvnas	1 000 000	518 520
Running hours
grain	t	1 900	1 950
Expenses
Fuel consumption	hryvnas	35 200	33 750
������ �� �������� � ������	hryvnas	100 000	360
Amortization	hryvnas	100 000	51 852